


Dance with me tonight

by inthedrift



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, College AU, F/M, Karaoke AU, M/M, pre-slash i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 19:17:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17249861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inthedrift/pseuds/inthedrift
Summary: When your best friend tells you to put some actual pants on and go out to a bar with them it's pretty hard to say no if you don't want to face the consequences.So if there is a hot stranger there that makes the evening way more than bearable well maybe you should thank her in the morning.





	Dance with me tonight

**Author's Note:**

> So I was listening to a Monday Motivation playlist on spotify and this song came on and I hadn't heard it in so long and all I could think was changing that first line as it fit so well and I needed to make this so I'm sorry.

Chuck had no clue how Mako had convinced him to come out to this shitty bar. He was fairly certain that if she'd revealed that it wasn't just a standard shitty bar but that it was in fact a shitty karaoke bar, he would still be curled in bed with 3 engineering books.   
   
But unfortunately, that was not what he was currently doing, nope. He was sat at a particularly gross and sticky table in one of the darker edges of the bar - not that there were very many lighter spots either. Drinking a pretty mediocre beer that he had had to use his pretty fantastic, if he did say so himself, fake ID to buy. Fucking America and it's dumb as shit drinking laws.   
   
Mako was sat next to him and he was still extremely confused as to why she'd dragged them to this shithole when the door opened and in walked three blokes. Realisation dawned on Chuck at that moment as he saw the shortest of the men was none other than Yancy Becket, the TA from their computing seminar this last semester.   
   
Chuck shot Mako a look, one that he hoped clearly told her just how unimpressed he was with this turn of events. "Seriously, Maks? Are we seriously here so you can oggle the hot TA?" The blush that creeped across Mako's cheeks told Chuck enough without her having to answer, he took another swig of his beer.   
   
"How the fuck did you even know he was gonna be here?" Mako wasn't looking at Chuck, instead she was following the group of men as they crossed the bar and took a seat.   
   
"It may have come up at some point or another" Mako responded, not really focusing on Chuck or what she was saying. "While you were flirting with him after a class?" Chuck knew that needling his best friend probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but he would probably stop before she killed him. Probably.  
   
Mako turned to look at him at that, "No, while I was discussing my final grade with him and he mentioned that if maybe I was ever free, he usually comes here on a Friday night." The hint of a challenge in her tone and that steel in her eyes that Chuck was all too familiar with, and usually preceded her kicking his arse next time they went kickboxing.   
   
"He's still our TA, Mako." Chuck made sure to tone down the judgement in his voice to avoid needing to stock up on ice packs in his foreseeable future. The look she levelled him with intimately familiar from years spent growing up together, it was a look that told him he was being dumb, and she wanted to smack him upside the head. He sometimes wondered if she was his best friend or older sister, he worried that it was probably both.   
   
"He's still your TA, Chuck. I however only need the one computing credit." A smug grin accompanied the statement and she turned back to look at the men. Chuck followed her gaze, this time focusing on the other two men that accompanied Yancy. He recognised the dark-haired man, who was still wearing a bow-tie and had his hair slicked back almost beyond perfection, as another of his TAs, Tendo Choi.   
   
The third man, Chuck didn't think he'd ever seen. Because Chuck was sure he'd remember having seen a man as attractive as that before. The bloke must have been a good few inches taller than Yancy, and probably a few years younger than him. Looking closer, Chuck couldn't deny there was an uncanny resemblance between the two men, the same blonde hair, the same jaw line, that same cocky expression.   
   
But while Yancy was arguably attractive and Chuck could see why Mako liked him, the man, Chuck assumed was his brother, was smoking hot, and Chuck found it hard to take his eyes off of him. He must have been staring for quite a while as Mako had given up trying to gain his attention in a friendly way and straight up kicked his ankle hard enough that the bruise would be there for weeks.   
   
"Ow, fuck Mako. What?" Chuck tore his eyes away from tall, blonde and dreamy and looked back at his friend. The look Mako was giving him was all kinds of judgemental, "Stop staring, you're starting to drool on the table. Are you less angry now about being forced to do an actual normal college activity now, or are you still going to pretend I've ruined your evening of planned boredom?"   
   
Chuck raised his eyebrow at her, silently asking what the hell she meant. "You can't keep your eyes off of Yancy's brother, don't play dumb, just thank me later." The smugness in Mako's voice made Chuck want to either down his drink or bang his head against the table, maybe both.  
   
~~~~~  
   
Raleigh had been tempted to bail on Yancy and Tendo's normal Friday night tradition of heading down the local karaoke bar and trying to pick up college girls. He usually only tagged along because it gave him something better to do than mope around their shared apartment, only to have to don noise cancelling head phones, half the time when they came back.   
   
But Yancy had come home and flopped down onto Raleigh's bed, Raleigh tried to ignore him at first, turning back to his work at the desk, when Yancy started complaining loudly and Raleigh's concentration had quickly disappeared.   
   
"Rals, you have to come out tonight. I might have maybe dropped like all the hints to Mako that we'd, well I'd be there and I just," he waved his arms around in the air obviously trying to convey some meaning that Raleigh was completely missing.   
   
"Yancy, please tell me you mean a different Mako and not the one that is in your TA seminar." He turned his chair completely around at that to give his brother a pointed look. Yancy lifted himself up on his elbows to look his younger brother in the eye.   
   
"No, but I'm just gonna point out that she's no longer in my TA seminar so don't give me that whole disapproving look thing." Raleigh rolled his eyes so hard at that Yancy swore he could hear it.   
   
And that's how Raleigh found himself sat at a suspiciously sticky table that Yancy and Tendo had automatically gravitated too, trying to convince his brother to give him some cash so he can go and buy some beer to make this whole thing slightly more bearable.   
   
Yancy ignored him in favour of searching the bar for a certain dark-haired undergrad, and unfortunately for Raleigh, when he spotted her, he practically punched Raleigh in his attempt to convey this information. "Fuck Yance" Raleigh's cry of pain was pointedly ignored in favour of Yancy making gooey eyes at the woman.   
   
When he followed his brother's gaze, he saw two people sat at a table across the bar. He saw Mako and understood why Yancy was maybe slightly in love with her. She was beautiful, and from what Yancy had said about her, she was smart, witty and took exactly no shit from anyone.   
   
But Mako wasn't the person who held Raleigh's attention, the man sat next to her was where Raleigh's focus landed. For a minute Raleigh wondered if one of his fantasies had come to life as the kid, because he couldn't have been 21 no way, was broad and tall and all kinds of gorgeous, with his red hair and freckles, and shit Raleigh wanted to go over there and introduce himself.  
   
He was pulled out of his thoughts by Tendo half slamming 3 beers down on the table in front of him, Yancy seemed equally as shocked, and Tendo just shook his head and sighed at the two brothers. "Shit, please don't tell me you're both falling in love with Sophomores?"   
   
Raleigh looked between the two older men at that, "Wait, you know the other kid?" Tendo smirked at the younger Becket. "Oh Rals, yeah he's in both our seminars, mechanical engineering major," the teasing tone clear through his voice.  
   
Raleigh glared at Tendo, "Any actual useful information?" Yancy had turned back to looking at Mako, but smirked at the two men's interaction, he spoke without looking at his brother. "Name's Chuck, bit of an asshole, smart and knows it, Australian, definitely too young to be drinking that beer, very much your type."   
   
Raleigh smacked Yancy's arm lightly for that, before taking a long swig of his beer, and thinking that he was so screwed.   
   
Raleigh tried to focus on the conversation Tendo was having at him, as Yancy was a complete lost cause and Tendo would get pissy if they ignored him too long. Eventually Tendo started trying to point out girls in the club for Raleigh to judge whether he would actually stand a chance with, as Tendo was the least savvy flirter Raleigh had ever had the unfortune to meet.   
   
He was finally starting to distract himself from the very attractive ginger across the bar when Yancy elbowed him non-too gently. "Rals, the kid has been eyeing you up all evening." Raleigh's head snapped around to look at his brother, "What?" his voice etched with confusion not quite comprehending what Yancy had said to him.  
   
"Chuck, the kid, he keeps looking over here, at you and just sorta staring like he's thinking of all the depraved shit he wants to do to you." Yancy spoke clearly as if his brother might be a little too dense to understand what he's saying.   
   
"Sure, he's not just looking at either of you two? Could be some TA/Student thing he’s got going" Raleigh shot back but he couldn't stop his eyes from going over to the other table and looking at Chuck.   
   
"Fairly certain that's a hard no as he thinks Yance is a smug prick, his words not mine," Tendo started deciding that this was more interesting than trying to scout out willing partners. "and apparently he thinks I'm so far up my own ass that it’s probably lube instead of gel in my hair"   
   
Raleigh nearly choked on the beer he'd been drinking and Yancy had to fight to stifle the laugh that forced out of him. "Shit, he sounds like a right pain in the ass." Raleigh didn't sound put off by the notion however and Yancy felt a headache coming on in his near future.  
   
"Seriously Rals, just go up and speak to the kid if you're that interested." Tendo said the exasperation in his voice evident. Raleigh scoffed at that "Yeah sure and steal Yancy's thunder, I'm stuck until he grows a pair and goes and talks to Mako."   
   
Yancy was about to protest that he wasn't being a chicken just giving Mako the chance to make the first move, so he didn't feel like he was being in anyway inappropriate, when Raleigh's eyes lit up. Yancy was immediately nervous as that usually meant Raleigh had come up with a really dumb idea, he just hoped this time it didn't involve him.  
   
"Raleigh, what are you thinking?" Yancy was almost, ALMOST, too afraid to ask, but this could also be hilarious, so it was worth the risk.   
   
"We're in a karaoke bar, Yance, what do you think I'm thinking?" and with that his little shit of a brother necked both his own and Yancy's beers and headed towards the signup booth.   
   
~~~~~~   
   
Chuck had been, not so subtly, watching the younger Becket most of the evening, and he had to admit he was well on his way to being slightly tipsy. So, when said younger Becket was climbing onto the stage at the front well Chuck couldn't have looked away if someone had come in and told him his life depended on it.   
   
The blonde swaggered up onto the stage, obviously relaxed and probably slightly tipsier than he would be willing to admit and Chuck's world narrowed to that one point.   
   
The music started, and Chuck couldn't place it, the song was something familiar, poppy and catchy but he couldn't for the life of him remember it.   
   
Becket began singing and fuck he had an actual good voice, but that wasn't what had Chuck feeling a thrumming sensation along his skin, no the blonde had turned and was looking Chuck directly in the eyes as he sang each lyric rather pointedly at him.  
   
 _"My name is Raleigh, nice to meet you can I tell you, baby  
Look around there's a whole lot of pretty ladies  
But not like you, you shine so bright, yeah" _  
   
Chuck could feel a flush creeping up his neck and across his cheeks, and curse him for being so pale, but even though he felt exposed and more than one kind of awkward he couldn't take his eyes off of the man.  
   
 _"I was wondering if you and me could spend a minute  
On the floor up and close getting lost in it  
I won't give up without a fight" _  
   
Chuck could hear some fairly loud cheering from across the bar and glancing quickly over he saw both Tendo and Yancy clapping and whooping loudly at the man singing. That caused the blush to heat up further and all the time the man never broke eye contact with Chuck.  
   
 _"I just wanna, oh baby_  
I just want you to dance with me tonight  
So, come on, oh baby  
I just want you to dance with me tonight"   
   
When the song had finished Chuck found himself half hard and certainly soberer than when it had started, Mako was trying hard not to laugh in the seat next to him from the way his ears had turned bright red. Instead of heading back towards his brother and friend however, the blonde walked towards their table.   
   
Chuck didn't look away as the older man came and sat down at the empty seat next to him, "Hi, I'm Raleigh" the broad smile that he shot Chuck would have been enough to make his knees weak, and he couldn't stop himself from flashing a dimpled grin back at Raleigh. "I'm Chuck, mate."   
   
~~~~~   
   
And if it was Yancy who ended up having to spend the evening wearing noise cancelling headphones, well shit Raleigh felt that was just karma.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you didn't know   
> the song is Dance with me tonight by Olly Murs   
> and the original line is "My name is Olly"


End file.
